Stephen King's THE LONG WALK Gets a Release Date and It Looks as Insane as the Novel
Day two of CinemaCon started off with a bang. The Lionsgate presentation was one of the best I have ever seen at this convention. Most years Lionsgate usually looked forward to because of the John Wick and anything that is in that world. This year, however, Lionsgate was swinging for the fences and they did not disappoint.
One of the films I was most looking forward to was The Long Walk, the film adaptation of Stephen Kings novel of the same name. If you haven’t read the book, I suggest you do. It is the one book that I compare all the rest of his books to.
Yes, it was written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, but is one of his best and scariest. I think about this book often and I still put it in the top 10 books i have ever read. I loved it so much that I haven’t wanted to read it again. I live in the nostalgia of the first time reading it.Here is the synopsis:
“From the highly anticipated adaptation of master storyteller Stephen King’s first-written novel, and Francis Lawrence, the visionary director of The Hunger Games franchise films, comes THE LONG WALK, an intense, chilling, and emotional thriller that challenges audiences to confront a haunting question: how far could you go?”
The Long Walk is a simple concept. The world is poor and the government controls everything. Once a year 100 teenage boys volunteer to join a competition where if you can walk, continuously at a 3 mile per hour pace, and outlast every other competitor you win the grand prize of being set for life.
In the book it was a lifetime supply of food, in the movie it appears to be money they are after. Either way it is no walk in the park. What happens if you go below the speed limit? You die.
Now, at CinemaCon they showed us the trailer for the movie and I was utterly shocked. The trailer alone takes you to a place that you were not ready for.
It calls into question whether a competition like this is worth it, how far are you willing to push yourself to be literally the last one standing? I would describe more but I don’t want to ruin it. It needs to be seen with untainted eyes.
The movie is directed by Francis Lawrence, who took us to the world of Panem in the Hunger Games. The Long Walk stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, with Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill.
I know that a lot of these names don’t mean all that much to many of you, but trust me, they are the future of film and this movie will help to prove that. One of the coolest things that Lawrence said in the presentation was “in other movies like this the competitors are trying to bring each other down, in this one they are trying to bring each other up so that they all can win.”
That is why this story is so intense, you don’t want to see any of them get hurt, but we all know that there can only be one winner. Lawrence and the cast have a big task ahead of them to capture the essence of the book. If they can, then this is going to be one of the most intense, gut-wrenching, most memorable movies of the year.
The film releases on September 12th, 2025 and I am going to be at the theater opening night to see it. Please, let us know what you think.